Tuesday, December 13, 2011

The Silver Surprise

When I adopted Silver, no one was sure whether she'd been spayed. The paperwork from her first rescue group's vet said this:
No spay scar seen or palpated, but mammary glands have no development and vulva is small and sl[ightly] recessed. All 5 vets here suspect pet is already spayed. None of us have ever seen an intact retired greyhound off the track--all are fixed very young. Pet is tattooed and suspect spayed.

SEGA's vet couldn't find a scar. Neither could my vet, and he laid down on the floor with his head under her to see if a scar was visible when she was standing normally (rather than when people were lifting her leg to take a look). No one wants to recommend opening up a dog, only to find that--Oops! Someone's been here already.

But if you were paying attention to the title of this post, you've already figured out where this tale is going.

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Silver is the outraged possessor of two pairs of canine panties--in purple and hot pink. Not surprisingly, she resents having her long greyhound tail pulled through the hole in the pants. (But you can distract her with dinner.)

Ideally, bitches are spayed midway between heat cycles. Most rescue groups don't have the luxury of following that timing since they need to get the ladies spayed and on their way to new homes.

But Silver is already in her new home, with a boy who has better sense than to mess with the living embodiment of the expression Let sleeping dogs lie. (She can be irritable even when her hormones aren't on the rampage.) Besides, Sam was neutered more than nine years ago; even if he had the will, he wouldn't have the way, so to speak. This means we'll be able to wait until the ideal time (three months after the onset of her heat cycle) for the spay.

Poor baby. She's already unhappy about having to be muzzled pretty much all the time to keep her from licking and chewing at her front leg. (We're trying different meds for that leg.) Now, in addition to muzzling her front end, we're "muzzling" her back end, too.

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The leg she's been chewing, licking and scratching since July. Steroids and antibiotics haven't made any impression.